


Heartlines

by catty_the_spy



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Ghost Drifting, Mid-Canon, unnamed chronic illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 14:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catty_the_spy/pseuds/catty_the_spy
Summary: Nature finds its own way. Mako and Raleigh find it together.





	Heartlines

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this](https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/344797.html?thread=2007986653#cmt2007986653) prompt, which asked for Mako and Raleigh in their 30s. Neither of them is dead or dying.

Mako visits Herc Hansen at the Sydney Shatterdome in August.

Raleigh is already there. Most former pilots - the ones who are still alive - find it easy to travel through Neo-Sydney. The Hansens overshadow everything, quite literally. It's uncomfortable for Herc, but it allows Raleigh to reach his hotel room unmolested, and to explore the city at his leisure.

Mako Mori is secretary-general. She cannot pass under the radar.

Herc meets her helicopter as it lands. There are cameras.

"Secretary General," he says, the way he'd once said 'Miss Mori'.

"Marshall," she says in the same way. "It's good to see you."

He gives her a jerky nod. "Have you met Ranger Kala, Doctor Aditya, and Doctor Martin?"

Second in command, head of k-science, head of marine science. Mako shakes hands with each. Then they are required to pose for the camera right there on the helipad, even though it's threatening rain.

Miss Mori carried her own umbrella. The secretary general does not. Eventually they are free to make an orderly line into the building. Less orderly is Sammy, the marshall's bulldog, breaking away from his handlers.

"How long are you in for?" Herc asks, when they're finally in his office. "Raleigh didn't say."

Sammy does not use the dog bed. He sits on Mako's feet.

"I'm not sure," Mako says. "I hope at least a week."

Herc grunts again. "You two can get a look at the reef."

It is common knowledge, at least within the PPDC, that Marshall Hansen has all but retired. The Sydney Shatterdome, more a museum than a military facility, is mainly focused on recovery. The reef project is their pride and joy.

"We'd be happy to."

 

Raleigh joins Mako in the dome that night, though his hotel room is booked through the end of the month.

"I hope you have time to sight-see. The aquarium isn't that bad."

Mako smiles a little. It was hard when she was so tired. "We'll schedule it in. How has your day been?"

"All right. Better, now that you're here." He kisses her shoulder.

Tomorrow, the secretary general would visit PPDC headquarters. There were no good friends going with her. Three years ago she could've scratched Max's ears, at least. Three years and many promotions ago. Maybe afterwards Mako can join Raleigh at the aquarium.

 

Neo-Sydney is brightly lit, even in the middle of the night. Mako and Raleigh huddle under the replica of Striker Eureka and look out at the ocean. They'd have a better view from the wall, but that would require lowering their hoods and passing a security check. Shark watching from Striker's base was anonymous and free.

"I think it's coming down too hard."

"Look!" Mako points, standing on her toes. "Isn't that a glow?"

"It might be a reflection."

"I think it's one of the K-sharks."

A lot of sea creatures had been killed by the blue, but some of them had adapted. There were new species of sharks who thrived in drifting 'blue pools', and creatures like shrimp and krill who had evolved to eat it, and coral that filtered the blue and made the water safe for the fish it protected. The coral was the genesis of the reef project. Mako had devoured pictures and updates, tracking the growth of K-Charlie and the freshly engineered coral based off of it as it grew from PPDC side project - almost forgotten when they lost funding - into a well known recovery initiative.

Even when they didn't know how they would survive, nature was finding its own way.

It reminded her of being a little girl; once, Stacker had given her a book of pictures that hadn't been released to the public of old and new bioengineered samples, with names like K-Janice and Ticker-13 and Stubborn Bastard. She'd carefully taped the pages together when they started to break free, but the whole book was tattered.

Raleigh catches her thought. "Where is it now?"

"In a box, with my other childhood things. I should find it."

"I'd love to see it in person."

"You don't need to. Now we have the real thing."

A thought flickers across her mind. _'The book doesn't throw water in your face'_

She doesn't respond to Raleigh's thought, but she does tip the umbrella away from him.

 

"Where will you go when you leave?"

"Where will _you_ go?"

Mako reflects on her calendar. "I believe I'm being sent to Vladistock."

"Then I guess I'm going to Vladistock."

"I won't be there long!"

"Then neither will I." Raleigh grins. "You should know by now that I don't mind."

"You cannot afford to be ill."

"Mako." He squeezes her shoulders. "I'm not dying."

 

She has a few hours in the morning. Herc takes them both to a run down restaurant in Old Sydney. The owner brings out a bowl for Sammy. The menu is very eclectic.

"Not much down here that didn't get flattened," Herc says. "It's a miracle this place is still standing. Chuck, when he was a little one, he thought Marnie was a witch."

"It's been open that long?"

"Non-stop. Marnie's a tough one. A little monster wasn't going to scare her off."

They end up with a questionable curry, pizza, and roasted onion-and-garlic soup. Herc and Raleigh eat like they're starved. Mako decides not to ask any questions about the ingredients.

"How're you two, then? Still playing guinea pig?"

"I've got a clean bill of health," Raleigh says.

Herc looks from one person to the other, eyebrows raised. "Huh. Good. No side effects?"

Raleigh shakes his head. Herc looks at Mako.

"Nothing we can't manage," Mako says. She prefers honesty.

"Good," Herc says again. "You two have got a long life ahead of you."

Sammy puts his paws on the seat, begging for treats. Herc gives him a little piece of sausage from the pizza and rubs the dog's head.

 

"We should visit more often," Raleigh says, as they walk to his hotel.

"I know." But she doesn't have the time. She hadn't had more than twelve hours of leave in a year.

"That has to violate some sort of labor law."

"You've checked."

"You know I did."

It's raining again. The weather is still unpredictable. At least no one had to fear Blue Rain anymore.

"It's going to get worse, you know."

She never has trouble following his train of thought. She never will

"One day, Herc won't be able to keep jaeger-police out of Sydney anymore."

"Working you to death isn't going to change that."

"Maybe. But at least I will go down fighting."

Raleigh had many responses to that. He kept them in his head. Mako hears them anyway.

Out loud he says, "So. Vladistock. Know any good hotels?"

His hand is closed over hers on the handle of the umbrella.

 

The secretary general does not visit the ocean or the labs where they studied coral. She is given a tour of pilot training facilities, and of the Shatterdome, as if she's never been there.

They have new facilities elsewhere now, and better technology. The drifts didn't build bridges with deep foundations anymore. Soon they would hardly touch minds at all, carefully compartmentalized.

Mako wonders if they have lost something important by breaking those connections down. Or maybe that was Raleigh, still ghost drifting with her from the other side of town.

"We're still hoping to master remote piloting, of course, and to reduce the load to the point where a single pilot can operate a full sized jaeger. So far those projects have been heading in, ah, opposite directions."

The best remote pilot trial so far had needed five pilots.

"I understand."

The woman stares at her, perhaps expecting encouragement. Mako holds off. The last time she'd done that, the scientists in question had insisted they needed to experiment on Raleigh.

No one is experimenting on Raleigh.

Never again. 

 

They don't make it to the aquarium together.

"Next time," Raleigh says.

He has been busy. He knew a couple of jaeger repair techs from his early days on Gypsy Danger and had taken a train and several buses to visit them. Her cellphone is full of pictures he'd sent her.

He still has energy, so he's packing her suitcase.

"You had a nosebleed?"

"Dry air got to me. It stopped pretty quick."

 _Don't worry_.  
_I'll always worry_.

He comes over to squeeze her shoulders. "I'm fine, Mako. I think you're stuck with me."

 _I'll make more time in Vladistock_ Mako decides.

If Raliegh hears the thought, he doesn't let on. He kisses her just once, on the top of the head. He might have been laughing at her.

She isn't sure what he found amusing.

"Nothing," he says. "Nothing. I just...love you. That's all."

 

Mako Mori leaves the Sydney Shatterdome in November.

Raleigh is already gone. Herc had seen him off at five. Now, while Sammy licks her shoes and everyone pretends to ignore it, Mako can feel the distance growing between them.

Growing and shrinking all at once. She'll know every beat of his heart, forever.

It could be more reassuring, she thinks, but it's what she has.

A bridge that will not break.


End file.
